The people you appear to be referring to are the people that either a)dropped out of school, b)messed around in school, c) tried their little hearts out and just couldn’t for the life of them get it.
Tell me, what % would make up c? The choices I refer to are the life choices people make. ALL of us, regardless of where we were born, how much money our parents have, what our life situation may currently entail, have choices. There is your opportunity. The opportunity to exercise free will. No one can take that away unless you let them.
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WHAT OPPORTUNITY DID THEY HAVE?
It seems imperative to you to believe that one exists, but for some odd reason you can’t quantify what it is. What opportunity exactly do poor kids who go to horrible schools have exactly? Selling crack?
See above.
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It’s nice to just make blanket statements without anything at all to back them up isn’t it? I know, I’m guilty of it on occasion as well. The fact is, most poor urban kids are screwed. They don’t have the options you or I take absolutely for granted.
You seem to think that by opportunity I mean legacy apps to Harvard or Yale, family hook-ups to a Federal judge clerk post. I am referring to the opportunity that every person born on the planet has to seize his or her day, to decide NOT to be a complete reprobate, to choose to be a productive member of society.
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It’s not idiotic at all. It’s critical. Having access to a safety net of someone else’s wealth is a massive factor in people’s lives. EVEN IF THEY NEVER USE IT. It’s the difference between climbing a cliff with a safety line and free climbing one. It’s a lot easier to take risks to succeed if you know that failure means you’ll have to ask someone for help as opposed to meaning you’ll be homeless.
Sorry. I, having been homeless for a time, and rectifying that, know that taking responsibility for your life and making wise choices (yes, I know, it’s a repetitive point) is of greater benefit than having a safety net. When was the last time you did a little dumpster diving?
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Which poor inner city area did you grow up in, Jethro?
Mobile, Alabama. Something wrong with the south now? :)
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No, our lives are about freedom to make choices. You may have had that your whole life and assume that it’s a god given birthright. For most urban poor, that’s just not the case.
Sorry, Smash, everyone, whether they like the choices or not, has choices. Were that not the case, NO ONE would escape poverty, NO ONE would move on to lead a better life. Again, the basic difference between liberal and conservative thought. You and yours believe it is our responsibility to make life better for everyone. Me and mine believe it is incumbent on the individual to take control of his or her life, get off of their collective lazy asses and make something of themselves.
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That’s great. Which poor urban inner city was she born into where she had to work as a teenager to make sure her family had food to eat, or could pay the rent? …That’s a lovely story. You know I knew a woman who froze to death because she couldn’t find a homeless shelter that wasn’t full. She had two kids too. Just made that poor choice of freezing to death I guess. I’m sure her kids will have all kinds of opportunities bouncing around in multiple foster homes. Hopefully they won’t make the same poor choices as their mother.
It’s not about where she grew up. It’s about the fact that no one’s life works like they expect it to. What you do with the hand you are dealt determines how you leave the table. Your homeless woman had COUNTLESS choices over the course of her life that led her to the situation that ended her. When her children die, the same will apply.
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Drive a car, that’s funny. I’ll be sure to mention that one to one of my social worker friends. “Poor people should just not buy newer cars, that’s the problem. And hell, if it gets too cold they should just borrow their friends summer homes. What’s wrong with those lazy bastards.
Exactly. (just a bit tongue in cheek)
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Nice to be a white woman in a non urban area isn’t it?
The nearly one million people that call Minneapolis or St. Paul home would disagree with you. And what does color have to do with this? I am referring to a socio-economic class.
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No, moron. YOU have opportunities. That doesn’t mean everyone does. I’ll tell you what. You take $100 and pull up stakes and move to East LA or Harlem or the South Side of Chicago and show me how much hard work pays off. Pretend you just have a high school education and that your name is Tyrone.
No, you moron, we all have opportunities. That you would trivialize the opportunities available to every man and woman born is an affront to all people. That you hold so little stock in the human race as a whole, and individually their ability to overcome adversity is shocking in its myopic view of life. You, sir, typify a shrinking minority who’s tactics have been tried and tested, and proved ineffective. I have pulled up stakes quite a few times, moved to urban areas in several parts of this country, to run-down, ethnic areas of urban centers. I have only a high school education. I was lucky on a number of occasions if I had $100 left after paying for the trip’s gas. My name is not Tyrone, but again, it isn’t about race, so why try to make it that?
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Oh and your $10 an hour single mother? How much money did she receive in HANDOUTS from entitled @#%^s like you who believe in social Darwinsim? What do you figure total, in food stamps, EIC, need based school grants? $80,000 or $90,000? What a worthless scum sucking leech huh?
Food stamps, EIC, Welfare, etc., nothing. She was on medic-aid, but I couldn’t tell you what that amounted to. Her schooling was paid for with student loans, subsidized, so maybe a couple of grand there.
